Fly Fishing Ireland

Saturday, 19 May 2012

With a Grilse just landed by his companion, Chris McCully is compelled to cast into a falling river to search for another. This article appeared in Trout & Salmon Magazine in the April 2010 issue. Used by kind permission of Chris McCully and Gardiner Mitchell. Thanks guys.

Sunday, 23 October 2011

Having found the website for Ardaire Springs and looked through the content I was immediately curious. I called the owner Ned and arranged a days fishing. On arrival I could see a lot of work, thought and effort had been put into the design and development of this fishery. Ned arrived on site and we chatted about the lake and the fishing over a coffee in the fishery lodge.

Ned recommended buzzers and cats whiskers for the rainbow trout. The weather conditions for the day were awful with high winds and rain, making the fly fishing challenging however I still managed to catch fish. During the course of the day I successfully got into 5 energetic and fit rainbow trout averaging 2.5 pounds.

All caught on Neds fly recommendations. I also had a lot of fish come after the fly, bite and come off, with a bigger fish of about 7 pounds showing interest but not taking. The trout I did land were in immaculate condition, strong fighting and healthy in appearance. I found the resident duck on the lake amusing. I asked Ned why there was only one duck on the lake, Ned explained there were up to five or six ducks on the lake until Mr Fox came and took them!

To round off my opinion on, Adaire Springs Fishery I'd give it a thumbs up for onsite facilities, quality of fish and friendly staff. It’s a modern man made lake, developed By a fisherman and built For fishermen so I can see it growing from strength to strength in the future. Perfect place for beginners. For the experienced fly fisherman, the lake is stocked with bigger fish of up to 20 pounds in weight.
Contact Ned Maher on 086 812 8937
Website: www.ardairesprings.com
Email: info@ardairesprings.com

Wednesday, 7 September 2011

Newly-arrived visitors to Ireland, passing Inchy Bridge on the Argideen River at midnight, could be forgiven for drawing the wrong conclusions upon seeing a huddle of men in polaroid glasses standing about, hands deep in pockets or leaning on the parapet looking into the water below.

Might it be a Timoleague family of the Sopranos sending an associate to "sleep with the fishes"?
In reality, the shadowy figures are not menacing at all but a companionable society of dedicated sea trout anglers, decidedly non-threatening unless you happen to be a fish. Nightly, during the season, they leave the comfort of their firesides and set off into the dark, there to try, by subtle wrist-flicking and lure-dangling, to seduce clever fish to take their bait and join them on the bank. Sea trout are shy and anglers fish at night, casting flies over the murmuring waters by the light of the moon or, on moonless nights, in total darkness but for the river’s silvery glow. The Argideen is one of Munster’s premier sea trout rivers. It issues into Courtmacsherry Bay. Those living by the sea tend to forget the sweet tranquillity of inland waters. This was brought home to me when, one afternoon during our first week of summer in late July, a friend, Peter Wolstenholme, led us along the Argideen banks above Timoleague. A dedicated sea trout and salmon angler, he has fished the river by day and night for 20 years.

From the start, we were amazed at the large number and diversity of the fish we saw. Firstly, in the lower reaches, mullet, dense shoals of large fish facing into the brown current, healthy and shining, singularly unlike the slow, grey mullet one sees cruising limpidly in the murky waters of the Lee below Morrison’s Island, in Cork. These Argideen mullet swim into the shallow river waters in June and sit there for months, no one knows why. Walking upstream via dappled paths, we paused at pools and gravel beds created by the Argideen Anglers Association. Jewel-like damsel flies and dragon flies danced over the water. The banks were a-buzz with bees and a-flutter with butterflies, and the waters were awash with fish. I had no idea the river held so many and that they could be so easily seen.
But then, I had never before searched its deep pools with the aid of polaroid sunglasses.
In the deep pools, adult sea-trout could be glimpsed, lying on the bottom, their dark shapes and white fins visible when the polaroids cut the glare on the water. Closer to the surface, juvenile sea-trout swam in shoals. Sea-trout spawn in November, digging a depression in the gravel and depositing their eggs which are then fertilised by the male fish ejecting their milt over them. The eggs are covered and hatch into ‘elvins’, like tiny tadpoles. After two or three years in the river, these move into sea for feeding. Some return after a few months, weighing about half a pound. Others, "one-sea-winter fish", feed for longer and return weighing two to three pounds. The adult sea trout go to sea in winter and the females return in May. They sit on the bottom until November, moving little and feeding not at all.

Our guide told us the fascinating story of how spawn is made inside the female; he cut open a fish he’d caught the night before to demonstrate. Bright red roe spilled forth.

From May onward, the females’ body fat transforms into roe so that, as the spawning time comes, they have pendulous bellies and hardly a pick of meat on their bones. The juveniles, with a mere teaspoonful of roe, also attempt spawning, lying between larger females whose potent and abundant eggs attract the milt of the males. While roughly 50% of Atlantic salmon die after spawning, and 100% of some Pacific salmon varieties, female sea trout spawn year after year. There were brown trout in the river too, and silvery minnows and salmon parr with thumb-print markings on their flanks. A kingfisher shot by, a bolt of iridescence through the shadows. We saw the dipper’s nest, but not the dipper: previously, I’ve seen these remarkable birds walk along the bed of the Argideen. Above all, we enjoyed the cool and dappled peace, and the river’s murmuring and twinkling in the sunlight. It must be other-worldly to stand silently on the bank at night, half-hypnotised by the flow, one’s mind lost in the arcane strategies of fish-luring.

Wednesday, 31 August 2011

Last month I had the pleasure of fishing with Chris McCully, fly fisher, author and writer. Chris has written several books and has published many interesting articles for Trout & Salmon magazine over the years. When Chris first made contact with me he mentioned he was in the process of writing a new book on Sea Trout called "Nomads of the Tides" and asked if I would show him along the Bandon and Argideen rivers. Chris loved the sea trout fishing in the estuary pools and up stream beats. The new book will examine Irish sea-trout fishing past and present.